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Money Laundering

4 ‘Bet Winner’ agents held

  • Staff Correspondent
  • 17 August, 2023 12:00 AM
  • Print news

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police on Monday arrested four agents of an online gambling sitefor laundering crores of taka abroad.  

The agents were involved in the operation of the 'Bet Winner' gambling site, run from Russia.

The Cyber Police Centre of the CID arrested Ariful Islam, 25, Anwar Hossain, 32, Harun-Or-Rashid, 37, and Imran Hossain, 26, from different locations in the capital including Tejgaon, Bangshal, Lalbagh, and Mirpur.

During the arrest, the CID seized 13 mobile sets, 18 SIMs, e-money balance of Tk 7.47 lakh, and Tk 1.42 lakh in cash.

Additional Superintendent Azad Rahman (Media) of CID shared the details at a press release on Wednesday. “The admins of the site appointed managers in different countries, including Bangladesh,” he informed.

Samrat and Shahin Reza were identified as the managers overseeing operations in Bangladesh. They, in turn, hired the arrested individuals and others as agents to operate the gambling site, linking them to multiple mobile financial services (MFS) agents for money transactions.    The agents used 14-15 SIMs of the MFS to conduct the online gambling activities. They collected money from gamblers across the country, converted it into cryptocurrency, and laundered the money abroad.

The arrestees were involved with another gambling site, Bet Visa. Each agent was found to have transacted several crores of taka through bank accounts, earning commissions in the process.